Unloved Antiques: 19th-Century Pump Organs

This Estey Eastlake-style organ was made circa 1890 and is of a type generic to the North Eastern U.S. and Canada. While why may be loved, and this isn’t even taking its sound into account, they don’t sell for more than $200.

The next item in this series of Unloved Antiques is the 19th-century “pump” or “reed” organ, or the Estey “Eastlake-style”* organ, to be more precise. The reed organ was once an important domestic instrument, offering a cheap alternative to the ever-popular family piano while, at the same time, providing a suitable instrument for accompanying family hymns on a Sunday. It was the product of a world-wide industry that turned out hundreds of thousands of organs a year at its peak.

According to old catalogs produced by the Estey company, it was founded in 1846—located in Brattleboro, Vt.—and was one of the best-known and longest-lasting of these organ companies, remaining in production until 1960. It was also one of the most prodigious, as in its 114-year existence, Estey produced some 520,000 reed organs. Like piano makers of the time, Estey numbered its products with serial numbers—either stamped on the back of the organ or on an internal sticker—so if you have one of these Esteys, you can get a rough idea about when it was made. For example, an organ from 1850 was stamped “400,” and by 1870, the numbers were up to 24,000. In 1880 it produced its 100,000th organ and in 1890 it turned out No. 221,000.

Demand for reed or pump organs dropped off after the First World War, and most ended up stored in back rooms and barns. Demand for them for is still very modest, and many were often converted into desks or bars by antique dealers looking to make them a more marketable item.

In the current market, values for them in “as is” condition at auction is still very modest and depends on who wants one and how bad. Of the 55 Estey Eastlake organs I’ve seen come up for auction over the last couple of years, 17 failed to even meet their modest reserves, while the remaining 35 sold for less than $200. Only three sold for more than $200.

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*Charles Eastlake was an English Designer who wrote a design book entitled “Hints on Household Taste” in 1868. In this influential book, he rejected the ornate decorations favored in earlier Victorian furniture and espoused a more simple design featuring incised rectangular lines sparingly accented with machined forms and varying wood types for decoration.